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How To Finish Your Block Of The Month Quilt Sew-Along (2024)

Quick Links: What you'll need Project steps

Joining your blocks and quilting the layers are important but highly satisfying, as all the elements come together to create a quilt you can be proud of.

Now you can join your blocks together to create the finished quilt top, but first you need to prepare the remaining appliqué pieces and add the sections of sky that the birds will be appliquéd onto. Joining the blocks is relatively straightforward. I started with the bottom half of the quilt, joining the four 14in (35.5cm) high blocks featuring the boats, fishes and seaweed together and then adding the 'Sea Snails' and 'Seminole Waves' to the top and bottom of the joined blocks. The top half of the quilt is slightly more complex because although four of the blocks are pieced together in the usual way, Block 5, 'Sand Dunes', is appliquéd over the neighbouring blocks so that we see the lovely curves of the sand dunes.

For the quilting stitches, I worked horizontal rows over the sand dunes and sea using a built-in wavy-line stitch on my machine to suggest ripples and waves. If your machine doesn’t have this stitch, choose something similar or perhaps consider doing some free-motion embroidery. For the sky, I followed the lines of the 'Sunny Dresden' block with a straight stitch to suggest rays radiating from the sun, not stitching over the appliquéd pieces, while in the 'Nautical Blocks' at the very top I quilted each block along both diagonals. The bunting was added after this, followed by the binding.

Note: stitch with a ¼in (5mm) seam allowance when joining the quilt blocks.

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You will need:

Equipment

• Sewing machine
• Fusible webbing or spray adhesive, if you prefer 
• Scissors
• Bird template

Materials

• 40 x 56in (101.5 x 142.25cm) or larger of wadding/batting
• 13in (33cm) of 42/44in (106/112cm) wide fabric for binding
• 4 x 7in (10 x 18cm) scrap of black or dark fabric for the appliquéd birds
• 12in (30.5cm) length of thin piping cord for the anchor cord
• Quilting thread of your choice
• Black or dark thread to match your fabric for the birds
• The anchor in FAB5 that you cut out for Block 2
• The 10 x 12½in (25.5 x 31.75cm) FAB10 rectangle that you set aside from Who Doesn’t Love a Beach Hut? (Block 9)
• Bird template

Fabrics (see my Introduction to the 2024 Block of the Month). From these you will need to cut:

• 40 x 56in (1.1.5 x 142.25cm) or larger of backing fabric
• 4½ x 10in (11.5 x 25.5cm) rectangle in FAB10
• 14½ x 10in (36.75 x 25.5cm) rectangle in FAB10

Follow steps 1 and 2 for Block 2 to trace the bird template onto fusible webbing, fuse onto the black or dark fabric and cut out the following:

• Five birds

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